THE HOLY GITA, CHAPTER 08, VERSE 22, AKSHARA BRAHMA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF THE IMPERISHABLE BRAHMAN

THE HOLY GITA

CHAPTER NUMBER 08

AKSHARA BRAHMA YOGA OR THE YOGA OF THE IMPERISHABLE BRAHMAN:

VERSE NUMBER 22

Text in Transliteration:

purushah sa parah paartha bhaktyaa labhyas tv ananyayaa

yasyaa ‘ntahsthaani bhootaani yena sarvam idam tatam

Text in English:

That Supreme Purusha, O Partha, is attainable by unswerving devotion to Him alone within whom all beings dwell, by whom all this is pervaded.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIDBHAVANANDA:

Ananya bhakti is the devotion of non-separation. It is the outcome of the right understanding of the relationship between the Jivatman (or Human Being) and the Paramatman (or God). They are interrelated in the way in which the sea and the waves are interrelated. The waves do not have any existence independent of the sea. Similarly Jivatman (the Being) is no entity apart from Paramatman (God). He who understands this fact cannot help having unswerving devotion to the Lord. When the individuality of the Jivatman is forgotten in the absorption in the Lord, it is then the devotion of non-separation.

COMMENTARY BY DR.S.RADHKRISHNAN:

All forms are forms of the One Supreme; their worship is the worship of the Supreme; the giver of all rewards is the Supreme. Sridhara.

COMMENTARY BY SWAMI SIVANANDA:

All the beings (effects) dwell within the Purusha (the Supreme person, the cause) because every effect rests within its cause. Just as the effect, pot, rests within its cause, the clay, so also all beings and the worlds rest within their cause, the Pursha.  Therefore the whole world is pervaded by the Purusha.

Sri Sankara explains exclusive devotion as Jnana or knowledge of the Self.

Purusha is so called because everything is filled by It (derived from the Sanskrit root pur which means ‘to fill’) or because It rests in the body of all (derived from the Sanskrit root puri). None is higher than It and so It is the Supreme Person. (Cf. IX.4; XI.38; XV.6 and 7)

Comments by the blogger:

Even after the performance of Yoga of Meditation, devotion is needed for salvation. Unswerving devotion itself is a form of Yoga according to Gita. But the other three forms of Yoga are well and good. But whether it is Karma Yoga, or Jnana Yoga or Raja Yoga, in the ultimate analysis Bhakti Yoga or the Yoga of Devotion is important for Salvation.

This fact is brought singularly out by the Isaavaasya (Isvasya) Upanishad. In this Upanishad, 15^th Mantra says, “The face of the Truth is disguised by the screen of golden light. Hey! The Sun God! I am meditating on the Ultimate Truth. I want to see that Truth, so, please set aside the screen!

So, after years of meditation, in order to see the Truth, even though one is standing on the threshold of the same, prayer to the Sun God is put forth so as to see the Truth, which is the Supreme God.

What I am striving to bring home is the point that there is nothing higher than Devotion. And Devotion, even irrational Devotion of the illiterates, is the ultimate necessity to see the Lord. There are so many persons who have seen God, in the form of their personal deity. K.P. Sundarambal and Thirumuruga Krubananda Variyar are two persons in the modern world who saw their titular deity, Lord Muruga, the second son of Lord Siva! They have recorded this fact for the sake of the posterity. And the only yoga they, the two singers, knew was the Yoga of Devotion!

And Swami Sidbhavananda speaks about Ananya Bhkti and Swami Sivananda speaks about Exclusive Devotion. Both the terms mean one and the same thing. One is in Sanskrit and the other is in English. So this Exclusive Devotion is necessary.

But you may say, “I have so many things to do before the day is out. How can I indulge in Exclusive Devotion?

Both the questions have been already answered by me umpteenth number of times.

Take to one Godhead or titular deity. Let it be Lord Narayana, or Lord Siva, or Devi. The thing is we must have an Ishta moorthy or titular God or Personal God or Goddess. And then, chant His or Her name always.

In the beginning, you would be chanting aloud. Then, after some time, it would become internalized. Thus you would always internally chant the Lord’s or Goddess’s Name except when you speak or read or sleep! And this is a Siddhi or Spiritual Accomplishment. Swami Sidbhavananda, in his commentary on Tiruvasagam in Tamil, says this Siddhi is known as Jaba Siddhi or spiritual accomplishment by prayer.

Possession is said to be nine points in Law.

Thus devotion is nine points in the Spiritual plane.